A Deterritorialized History: Investigating German Colonialism ...

critical, especially in consideration of the growth experienced by the bureaucracy. The
German administration grew exponentially from occupying seven offices in the AA
building to thirty-two offices in its own building, and from consuming 1.7% to 15.4% of
the entire AA budget. 46 Controversies involving the K-A and RKA grew as they became
more bureaucratic and more militaristic. 47 Through this burgeoning bureaucracy,
Germans both imposed and negotiated the relations of power with African peoples.
Bearing the development of a social and cultural episteme of colonial inhabitants in mind,
the German bureaucracy exerted control over the African population. This was
especially evident in its efforts to know, label and reconstitute colonial peoples, which
extended a Foucauldian discourse that sought to compose the native objects of its
knowledge in German terms. 48
The corollary to this bureaucratic growth was the extension of German policy in
Africa. This prompted conflict, both internal to Germany and external in the colonies.
This contrasts with the monolithic or essentialist view of German colonial policy taken
by many political histories. The Berlin bureaucracy, the colonial administration, the
Schutztruppe, the missions, the colonial propagandists, the many commercial concerns,
the German settlers and other social entities seemed often to be focused upon
competition. In fact, the expansionist desires of colonists and the K-A and RKA often
opened fractures within the German bureaucracy, such as the conflicts between the K-A
and the Admiralität over colonial governance. 49 Conflict between German expansionist
imperatives and native desires also existed throughout the three decades of rule. This
tension between German and African was often responsible for the direction of colonial
growth, when Africans exploited German circumstances and vice versa. 50 Furthermore,
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